PALAGUMMI SAINATH BOOKS

Palagummi Sainath is one of India’s most respected and influential journalists, widely acclaimed for his pioneering work in rural reportage and his unwavering commitment to highlighting the struggles and resilience of the country’s poorest and most marginalized communities. With a career spanning over four decades, Sainath has dedicated his life to giving a voice to those often ignored by mainstream media—India’s farmers, laborers, tribal populations, and rural poor. He gained national and international recognition with his groundbreaking book Everybody Loves a Good Drought, a collection of real-life stories from across India’s poorest districts. The book, based on his extensive travels through rural India in the 1990s, remains a landmark in Indian journalism and has been translated into multiple languages, serving as a vital text for students, policymakers, and activists alike. Sainath is also the founder of the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), an innovative digital platform that documents and preserves the lives, languages, labor, and cultures of rural India. His work goes beyond journalism, blending storytelling, data analysis, photography, and advocacy to challenge urban-centric narratives and expose systemic inequality. Over the years, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 2007, often referred to as Asia’s Nobel Prize. Sainath’s writing is marked by empathy, depth, and a fierce sense of justice. He brings to light the human cost of economic policy, environmental degradation, and government apathy, making the invisible visible and the unheard heard. A tireless field reporter, passionate teacher, and fearless critic of power, Palagummi Sainath has reshaped Indian journalism, inspiring generations of journalists to pursue meaningful, ethical, and socially conscious reporting. His life’s work stands as a powerful testament to the role of journalism in a democracy and the enduring need to document truth from the margins.